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Personal Data of a Billion Indians Sold Online For $8, Report Claims (theguardian.com) 74

Michael Safi, reporting for The Guardian: The personal information of more than a billion Indians stored in the world's largest biometric database can be bought online for less than $8, according to an investigation by an Indian newspaper. The reported breach is the latest in a series of alleged leaks from the Aadhaar database, which has been collecting the photographs, thumbprints, retina scans and other identifying details of every Indian citizen. The report in the Chandigarh-based Tribune newspaper claimed that software is also being sold online that can generate fake Aadhaar cards, an identity document that is required to access a growing number of government services including free meals and subsidised grain. The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), which administers the Aadhaar system, said it appeared the newspaper had accessed only limited details through a search facility that had been made available to government officials.
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Personal Data of a Billion Indians Sold Online For $8, Report Claims

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  • Intel (Score:5, Funny)

    by 110010001000 ( 697113 ) on Thursday January 04, 2018 @12:29PM (#55863217) Homepage Journal
    Thanks Intel.
  • by swb ( 14022 ) on Thursday January 04, 2018 @12:29PM (#55863219)

    I'm trying to understand the price/value issue in play here.

    • by Ayano ( 4882157 )
      This both looks and sounds bad.
    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Maybe you will glean some insight into why facebook, microsoft, google, et al are so in favor of the H1-B programme

    • by EvilSS ( 557649 )
      Probably supply vs demand. Either there isn't much demand for it, or it's way too easy to get from other sources to be valuable.
    • I'm trying to understand the price/value issue in play here.

      Most likely the database is available from more than one seller, and competitive pressure is pushing the price down to near the marginal cost of providing the goods.

      This is indicative of a properly functioning free market.

    • I'm trying to understand the price/value issue in play here.

      You read it right : a billion Indians are worth $8

    • The country is a literal shit hole.

  • And I want a large Cherry Slurpee included as well.
    • by Anonymous Coward

      Yes sir you will receive the needful.

  • This is a good example of what happens when you fail to invest in strong security. I'm not talking just about getting hacked, I'm also talking about employees walking off with your data and selling it. The ability to access this information should have been heavily scrutinized and limited. I'm guessing India had an amateur hour setup and has no way of tracking how this information was even taken.

    • Re:A fine example. (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Archangel Michael ( 180766 ) on Thursday January 04, 2018 @12:47PM (#55863351) Journal

      It isn't the security that is the problem, it is that we accept, blindly, that people are who they say they are. Until we assign fraud back to the lenders, credit providers, and the aggregators of such information, and not the individuals who are being spoofed by hacks such as this, we won't actually solve the problem.

      But this is done by design and will never change.

      • Indeed. A system that allows anyone to take out a loan in my name by reciting the last four digits of my SSN is not secure. Nor is a system that allows a thief to use a stolen credit card as long as he knows the 3 digit CVV code that is printed directly on the back of the card.

    • I'm guessing India had an amateur hour setup and has no way of tracking how this information was even taken.

      Maybe they outsourced it {rimshot}

  • Based on the purchase power parity calculation and using the McDonald Burger index, 8 USD works out to several billion Indian Rupees.
  • Hello, my name is Sanjay and I am with the India State Tech Support Agency. I have received a notification from your computer that it has encountered a problem that needs to be fixed. If you will please give me your credit card information, I will help you fix your computer. Thank you for your cooperation and I'm sorry for the inconvenience this computer problem has caused you.

    Seriously, it's about time the love got spread around to India to see how they like being scammed.

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • The real question we all want an answer to is how many Bothans died to bring us this $8 worth of information
  • ...that's about double their net worth anyway.

It isn't easy being the parent of a six-year-old. However, it's a pretty small price to pay for having somebody around the house who understands computers.

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